Mad Men cast and creators reflect on their experience on the show and the development of the story and the characters as the final episodes of the show come to a close. Mad Men Final Season premiere will air this Sunday on AMC.

At the start of it all, the creators nor the cast had anticipated that a drama about a 60’s advertising agency will become a worldwide phenomenon, earning the show recognition, acclaims and accolades in the seven years of its running on primetime television.

Mad Men has conquered that feat. Mark Weiner, the creator of the show, admits that he had a good feeling about the show but he never expected that it will reach the heights that it did. The show won the “Outstanding Drama Series” at the Primetime Emmy Awards four consecutive times.

That feat alone puts it next to the shows like “The West Wing,” “L.A. Law” and “Hill Street Blues”; and these are the shows that managed it when there wasn’t much competition. Mad Men having managed that in today’s cut throat competitive television has been an accomplishment for both; the cast and the crew.

So the worldwide phenomenon, after 7 seasons and 92 episodes is finally coming to an end with the last season featuring seven episodes which will premiere on April 5th. At the end of it all, the six patron original cast members remain to see the end of the show. Jon Hamm, Christina Hendricks, January Jones, John Slattery, Elisabeth Moss and Vincent Kartheiser have taken this exquisite roller coaster ride of the 60’s in New York including stories about divorce, adultery, racism, drug use, women’s rights and politics.

They have been through it all. Weiner says that the actors have worked consistently putting up surprisingly excellent portrayal of their characters although the writing always remained experimental. It has always been an integral part of the show to have such stability from the actors. The cast has kept it interesting for the whole run and Weiner wasn’t show if that could be achieved ever again.

The main man in Mad Men, Don Draper played by Jon Hamm has been the apostle on which the show stands. Jon Hamm’s performance can be accounted as the best work in his life. Jon was already working when he came across the script of Mad Men and he knew it was something special. A Golden Globe and five Emmy nominees later, Jon is at a point where he recognizes that playing Don Draper has been ‘an unequivocally wonderful’ experience.

He appreciates the amount of creativity and the effort that went into playing Don Draper. Not only that, Jon also realizes the opportunity he has had in being a part of a team which has pulled off something incredible and he feels lucky to be a part of it.

John Slattery playing Roger Sterling is also adamant that becoming a sex symbol through the show hasn’t been a thoroughly enjoyable experience. It has earned him a female fan following who perceives him as the want to and not the man he really is.

Although a lot of Sterling is actually what John is in real life and that has been the charm of playing a role that so close to your own personality. The reason behind that is that Weiner holds on to everything you do or say and incorporates it somehow in your role.

Elizabeth Moss on the other hand notices that her character Peggy Olson has remained somewhat consistent throughout. It has been the changing times in that have enhanced her characters importance in relevance to the movement of the trend rather than the movement of her character. She said that Peggy retained most of her habits, whether good or bad.

People are exponentially impressed by how she acts but if you see the story, any milestone Peggy has crossed has had a proper layout in the preceding episodes so Moss doesn’t actually see a drastic change just Peggy stepping up a little. Whatever she might say, playing Peggy has won Moss four Emmy nods and even if Moss think it’s consistency, it shows that consistency is what is required in a character.

The end is coming closer and Matt Weiner is still not giving any spoilers per their policy on what is going to happen next or what to expect even. Matt admitted that they have written the last seven episodes with finality distinct in each one.

The goal is to tell a story that will be explanatory rather than what people are anticipating. It is never easy to satisfy everyone but to put a finale that would do justice to the show will be an appropriate thing to do justice to the show.